Forgiveness
by Hannah Claire McKenna Taylor
Summary: Hotch hears a song on the radio that touches him and he can't stop thinking about his deceased father. Hotch does the hardest thing he has ever done. He forgives his father.


**A/N: based on the song 'Forgiveness' by Matthew West. Look it up some time since I can't post the lyrics on FF. **

**Warning: One teensy curse word.**

SSA Aaron Hotchner was on his way to the BAU one morning when he decided to find some music to listen to on the radio.

He was surfing the stations when he came across a song that caught his attention. It was about forgiving those who have hurt you.

By the time he got to the BAU he had tears streaming down his face which wasn't normal for the usually stoic man who had only ever cried when his wife Haley had been killed by George Foyet.

He couldn't stop thinking about how his father had hurt him as a child and realizing that to truly move on he needed to forgive the man, even though he knew it would be hard to do so. He just wished he would have done it while his father was still alive.

But for now he needed to pull himself together before he walked into the building to see what case would be awaiting them this morning. No need to let the team see him so distraught.

Once he had successfully put his mask of stoicism back in place he got out of his car and walked in the building and greeted his team.

"Hotch; we have a new case, I've already asked everyone to meet in the conference room for the briefing before we head out." JJ told him.

"Okay, see you in the conference room." Hotch replied trying not to let his emotions betray him in front of his colleague.

He couldn't stop thinking about that song he had heard on the radio and about his father and he knew he would be making a trip the cemetery when they got back from this current case. He just hoped he could hide his feelings from the rest of the team until then.

Soon the briefing was finished and the team were on their way to Georgia where the unsub was abducting petite female women with brunette hair and torturing and raping them before killing them and dumping their bodies like trash in a garbage dump.

It didn't take the team long before they had identified their unsub as Michael Holt, a twenty year old man who had been physically and sexually abused by his brunette mother, therefore he was taking out his hurt and anger on the women he abused and killed to get back at his mother for what she put him through as a child.

They caught the man and passed him off to the local authorities to process and transport to the local prison where he would await his trial.

Once the team was on their way back home on the jet, Hotch sat down in his usual spot and the words to that song he had heard two days ago came back to him.

Rossi noticed Hotch sitting and staring out the window and walked over and sat beside him. "What are you thinking about Aaron? You've been acting kind of distant the whole time we were working this last case." The older man asked.

"It's nothing Dave; I would rather not talk about it." The younger man said not bothering to make eye contact for fear the older man would read the hurt in his eyes.

Rossi raised an eyebrow but said nothing just squeezed the older man's shoulder reassuringly.

_Damn of course Dave would be the perceptive one and realize something was bothering me_. Hotch mentally cursed working with the best profilers in the world.

"Okay, but you know you can talk to me about anything." Dave reassured the younger man before returning to his usual seat on the jet.

"I know" Hotch said before turning back to the window to let the words of the song play in his mind once again.

Everyone had been home for approximately two hours. This had been a tough case for the whole team and everyone was tired and worried about Hotch, who was not as good at hiding his emotions as he thought he was and the team knew something was bothering their superior.

SSA David Rossi passed by Hotch's office and noticed the younger man still sitting at his desk. "Aaron, go home the paperwork can wait until tomorrow."

Hotch looked up at the sound of his friend's voice "I'm fine I'll just stay here for a little while longer."

Rossi gave him a stern glare "Go home. You need the rest. I don't want to see you here before seven o'clock in the morning."

"You can't tell me what to do; I'm your boss it's not the other way around." He said glaring back at the older man.

"Rossi rolled his eyes "I know I'm not your boss, just think of it as a friend trying to help you and keep you safe. Are you sure you don't want to talk about whatever is bothering you?"

"Fine I'll go home and get some rest and no I don't want to talk to anyone right now." He said with all the attitude of a teenager.

"Okay take care of yourself Aaron; if you need to talk you know where to find me." Rossi said deciding to ignore the teenage attitude.

"Okay I'll just head home now." Hotch said beginning to pack up his things.

Aaron had seriously intended to go home, but he found himself in a cemetery in front of a grave stone instead. The name on the grave stone read Jonathan Aaron Hotchner.

Aaron sat there for about thirty minutes with tears in his eyes as he finally decided it was time to forgive his father, for all the hurt he had caused him, so he could move on.

Aaron slowly rose from where he had been in front of the concrete grave marker and made his way back to his vehicle. He felt like a weight had been lifted off of him and he felt freer than he had in years.

All too soon he was parking in front of the house that he shared with his seven year old son. He walked into the house and met Jessica in the living room.

"How's Jack been while I've been gone?" Hotch asked.

"Great as always, he's such a wonderful kid, hardly any trouble at all. He went to bed without me having to say anything." Jessica responded.

"That's great, well I guess you can head on home now and get some sleep I know that's where I'm going, I'm beat. Thanks for watching Jack for me." Aaron said.

"No problem he is family after all," Jessica said walking out the front door.

Hotch locked the door and set the security alarm and headed upstairs and barely managed to get undressed before he plopped on the bed and fell promptly asleep. Today had been an emotionally draining day for the BAU profiler.

**THE END**


End file.
